Fly
Baby Photos Page 11

Kurt Grubert's
biplane absolutely stunned the Fly Baby world when it came
out in 2015. Fly Baby biplanes are rare enough, but
Kurt has used an ingenious combination of cosmetic changes
and paint to make the bipe look like an actual WWI
fighter. He calls his plane a 'RNAS Experimental Scout
FB1B' (RNAS refers to the Royal Navy Air Service, the
British Navy's air arm during the great war). He flew
it in May 2015, and it's been working great since.

In addition to the
motorcycle wheels, he's added bungee-cord shock absorption
to the landing gear...something you can do, with a Fly Baby
biplane. The rudder shape has been altered to more
closely resemble the styles of 1917. Note that the
vertical stabilizer itself is stock; just the rudder has
been changed.

Fly Baby N4629T is
probably the oldest Fly Baby still flying. It was built from
the 19th set of plans that Pete sold. It's owned by
Forrest Lovley of Jordan, Minnesota. It's got a
Continental A80, and the landing-gear cross braces are
cut-down struts from a Curtiss Robin (instead of
wires). Forrest's son, Vaughn flew the plane to
Oshkosh 2015, where Ryan Wubbin took this picture.

Aivars Graholskis built the
first Fly Baby in Latvia, and it's a biplane to boot!
The pictures came from Janis Maslovskis, in Riga,
Latvia. Construction of this gorgeous Fly Baby was
started in 2001, and it first flew with Subaru engine in
2007. It was damaged in hard landing in the first four
hours, and in 2014 Aivars decided to resurrect it and get it
flying again. He installed a new firewall forward,
using an O-200. First flight of the reconditioned Fly Baby
was in May 2015, and he's been actively flying since
then.

John Tiner's NX4268 was
built in 1975, and he bought in 2009. It has an
interesting feature, the fuselage has stringers to give it
more of a circular cross-section like a lot of antique
airplanes. It also has an "NX" registration...the FAA
allows designs older than 25 years to use the designators of
the early age, and "X" is what they added to denote an
Experimental aircraft. He's had the plane on a couple
of long trips, including one from St. Louis to Canada
in 2016.

Another great warbird paint
scheme! Bill Hills bought N222DH in June, 2017.
He lives in Virginia.

Another British version of
the classic Fly Baby. Rick Phillips flew G-EFRP for
the first time in April 2017.

Shane Edwards' C-FTZN is
another military paint job...solid red, Richtofen-style!

OK...you KNOW I'm a
pushover for military paint jobs on Fly Babies. But
Mike Madrid used one of my favorite eras, US Navy paint
schemes from the 1930s. Mike's paint job has it based
on the USS Northampton...a heavy cruiser sunk during one of
the battles off Savo Island (Near Guadalcanal) in November
1942.

Another cool bit about Mike's plane is the stringer system
applied to the fuselage, producing a very nice visual
effect.

Lorenzo Huffmann bought
N228JT from Reginald McKenna of Florida in 2018 and imported
it to his native Argentina.
It's got a C85 engine with starter. Lorenzo is keeping
the plane at a crop duster airport in 25 de Mayo city, which
is in the Buenos Aires province, Argentina. "It is a
fantastic plane, and flies perfectly all right," Lorenzo
says.

N53779 was built by Wayne
Christensen back in 2003, and purchased by Chris Reynolds a
few years back. Chris recovered the airplane using the
Oratex
system. The "fabric" is modified polyester with the
color manufactured into it; the fabric glues on with no
painting at all required. Chris's airplane was the
demo aircraft at the Oratex display at Oshkosh 2018.

N966 is currently owned by
Rocky Phoenix in Winnemuca, Nevada. The airplane was
built in the 1970s by a man named Stewart. The photo
was taken by Roy Zilko at the Hood River Fly-In in
2018. This is Rocky's second Fly Baby!